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On the GR de Pays Le Cévenol Trail |
   
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After having roamed, for ten years, many paths in the Cévennes, from St Jean du Gard to Causse Méjean passing by Mont Lozère, we went up, last year, to the sources of the Loire forgetting the entire region situated between La Bastide-Puylaurent, Valgorge, Les Vans, and Génolhac, which corresponds precisely to the route of the Cévenol. We therefore decided to book accommodations along the way.
La Bastide Puylaurent (1024 m). 5 p.m. Warm welcome from Philippe Papadimitriou at L'Etoile Guesthouse. Generous meal, everything needed for ambitious hikers!...
Departure at 8 a.m. the weather is uncertain, no rain for now... We follow a forest path then a field path without much elevation until reaching the Abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (1081 m). We see some monks (as we think) busy around the farm. The abbey is superb in its green setting.
Saint-Laurent-les-Bains (820 m). We access it from the heights, discovering the village only 500 meters before arriving, tucked away in a valley between two mountains that crush it with their imposing masses. It is a lovely village where old stones and more modern buildings, including the thermal establishment, blend pleasantly.
One kilometer after St-Laurent, first uncertainties about the route due to a fallen sign and a lack of marking, I think, due to the widening of the path to facilitate access for logging machinery. The small pass we reach offers a beautiful panorama of wild massifs with steep slopes.
We descend towards Conches (800 m). A ruined hamlet that once housed several families. About 300 meters away, we discover an old farmhouse lost, with no access road, but in the process of renovation! It can only be accessed by a mule path. The materials are transported there via a zip line stretched above the valley a little further, after a long journey in 4x4, then in a wheelbarrow... What work! But the place is so beautiful!
The valley above which the zip line passes is watered by a clear stream that can only invite swimming: under the bridge, there is a fairly large and deep natural pool in which we would have liked to dive but the rain threatened, we continued on our way and met four lovely Belgian hikers, in their fifties, vibrant and smiling.
Le Mas de Truc. An old renovated village whose one of the houses has a "storm bell tower" with its magnificent bell. The path leads to the pass of Toutes Aures (1199 m). The trail is not very well marked anymore and sometimes overrun by vegetation, we must pass through the meadows.
Loubaresse (1230 m). A high-perched village, you can find a café, a restaurant, rooms and a guest table; the grocery store and its grocer are charming. We had lunch around 1 p.m. in the entrance hall of the church, in the sun, sheltered from the wind. Leaving Loubaresse, we catch sight of Valgorge at the bottom of the valley. Unfortunately, upon arriving on a DFCI road, we do not see the fork of our GR and we head off on the GRP Tour du Tanargue! We only find the "Cévenol" again 5 km later, on the crest of Sapet where we are not supposed to pass until tomorrow! We take the descent towards Valgorge which we will do again tomorrow, in the opposite direction. The stage is long but magnificent.
Valgorge (570 m). A beautiful village, we are staying at the communal gîte where trust reigns: the manager left the door open, the key is on the table! We reserved dinner at the restaurant "Tanargue". We are a bit surprised by the very stylish welcome from the owner and the waiters, all wearing ties while we're in shorts and flip-flops... But everything goes well, the meal is excellent, very refined, and at a relatively moderate price.
Departure from Valgorge at 9 a.m. for a stage that we hope will be shorter than yesterday's. We retrace the slope we descended yesterday after our wrong turn. We are fresh, it feels less difficult than we feared. We climb for nearly two hours. The crest is at 1010 meters, the panorama is very beautiful, we see far down the village of Dompnac to the right and the chapel of St Regis (700 m) where we will be in an hour, across the way. At the chapel, we stop for a small refreshing snack and see a couple of Luxembourgish hikers, sporty in their fifties, setting off on the Lauzes trail that our GR follows for a few kilometers; we will meet them again a little later...
Ready to set off again, we see a group of energetic people in their sixties who are also walking on the Lauzes trail but, not all being athletes, knowing the country well (they are locals), they decided to join St Méleny by cutting through the DFCI, which will mislead us, especially since a couple from the Pyrenees, picnicking at the Grimal cross, have hidden the fork marks of our GR. We walk 500 meters before realizing... turn back, the Pyreneans are dismayed! We do not regret going back, the Lauzes trail is superb: old chestnut groves, paved paths, beautiful low walls, terraced vineyards, and old farmhouses... We pass close to the houses, almost at the people's homes who accept these intrusions with a smile... The path is delightfully adorned, quite regularly, with original artistic works, in stone or wood, very interesting and integrating well into the landscape.
At Au Travers (600 m), near the stopover gîte, we go straight ahead instead of taking a small path to the left. We arrive at a road where we find the couple of Luxembourgish hikers who, however, had already done this hike last year! The gentleman is determined to find the trail and motivates us, despite the heat, to retrace our steps. Here we are back on the right path. The valley is magnificent. In a shaded spot, near a stream, we stop to picnic.
When we arrive at Saint-Mélany (465 m), we are surprised to find our couple of Luxembourgish hikers, sitting on the terrace of a "Café de Pays" that also serves as a restaurant and small grocery store; they have eaten there, the waitress is charming, and we stop to drink a lemonade with them. At the Brousse bridge, we cannot resist the call of the bath, it must be said that the natural pool that stretches under the arches is tempting: the water is lively, clear, and deep... the rocks bordering it allow bathers to dry in the sun and, for children to jump or dive... a delight!
We come out feeling invigorated, our legs light again, ready to tackle the long 5 km climb up to the Col de la Croix de Fer via an old paved mule path. It’s hot, but fortunately, the path is very shaded and so beautiful!
At the Col de la Croix de Fer (818 m), we take the road to reach L'Auberge de La Peyre (860 m), which also offers guest rooms. The welcome is friendly, the meal is simple but very good, the products are local and of excellent quality: homemade charcuterie, fabulous mushroom omelet from the owner, and delicious apricot tart from our host's mother.
Departure for our third stage around 9 a.m., it is already hot. The trail that descends to Dépoudent (650 m) is shaded and wild, yet again an old mule path as we like, even if erosion and wild boars do everything they can to destroy them. Dépoudent is a lovely hamlet of only a few farmhouses, it remains authentic, and you can still feel the soul of the old Cévennes farmers.
At Saint-Jean-de-Pourcharesse (600 m). We admire the clear-way bell tower, "comb bell tower" and some nice houses before descending into an old chestnut grove. At Aliziés, we are fortunate to meet the last farmer of the hamlet who pointed us to the well-cold fountain where we could refill our already empty water bottles while he placed his beers and fruit juices to cool before noon. One of the village inhabitants invites us to visit his large house: large tiled rooms, stone vaulted passages between the halls like in a manor, and finally, the terrace covered by a roof and overlooking the valley where he offered us a cold drink. We appreciated it, but time was passing, we had to leave... We picnicked on an old shaded bridge where a group of mountain bikers, coming down the nearby slope at high speed, arrived on us without warning: impressive!
At Champmajour (240 m). We went to see the fountain at the bottom of the village: a beautiful spot, with its stone arch under a terraced garden. Chambonas (160 m). Too much road, too many cars! The passage over the bridge towards Les Vans is quite amusing: it's long, with only one lane, there are two or three refuges that allow us to escape the risk of collision with a vehicle; one must time their crossing based on the speed of the cars and that of our run between two refuges.
Les Vans (179 m). A tourist town, the streets of the historical center are pretty but there's too much crowd! Many restaurants are already full by 6 p.m.; we finally eat at "La Feuille de Chou," a place a bit away from the old city, it's good, and the prices are reasonable. We sleep at the Hôtel des Oliviers where we were warmly welcomed, the staff is really nice. Too bad that in the middle of the night, at 2 a.m., a group of young people started smoking in their room, triggering the general alarm, five long minutes of shrill ringing...! And it wasn't over, the young people, having been scolded by the hotel manager, thought they were clever by smoking again, but this time by the window... A draft likely brought the smoke back into the room, and the alarm went off again! They almost spent the night under the stars!
Departure at 9 a.m. Since there was a storm during the night, mist is rising from the ground. To reach the village of Naves, the slope is steep but beautiful: a perfectly preserved calade. The houses are lovely, sometimes connected by suspended stairs under which it is pleasant to walk. We then take a steep path, overlooking the beautiful Bourdaric valley, which looks very nice but there's mist!...
We then cross a lovely chestnut grove before arriving at Alauzas (490 m). We follow an easy DFCI path to reach Brahic (508 m). And there, our GRP disappears! No more marks! Luckily, thanks to the "Road book", we understand that a small hiking trail marked in yellow heads in the right direction. Until where? We will see, it's already a good help... Sometimes we find a yellow and red mark that hasn't been erased.
At Murjas, even the signposts have been amputated (cut) from the GRP marks! We go down towards the stream via a very steep and poorly maintained old calade. With the humid weather, it is somewhat dangerous. The place is beautiful, we could have bathed there but it's a bit chilly. The climb back up, in an old chestnut grove on a steep slope, seems endless, this time on a sunny slope where the temperature has risen by at least ten degrees all at once!
We picnic near Malbosquet (430 m). The storm catches us there, we put on our rain ponchos and set off for a new very long climb through an old chestnut grove. We find our GRP again a little after Escoussous near Malbosc.The ridge path (660 m) in the forest seems long, there’s hardly any viewpoint! The ascent is still quite long. One kilometer from Col de Péras, we think we can find the GR®44 A which descends directly towards the castle of Cheylard and would bring us closer to our evening gîte, but after 500 meters, it gets lost in the forest... we turn back! The thunderstorm rumbles again, it is approaching, we take out the rain ponchos.
At Peras Pass (771 m). The GR seems in poor condition, there are many stones that the rain makes slippery, so we decide to descend via the road towards Aujac (520 m).
Just before the village, we head towards the castle of Chaylard before then descending onto Aujaguet, and finally La Baraque (330 m). We reach our gîte around 7 p.m. The welcome is warm, Lise-Anne, the Quebec companion of Jonas Nivon, our host, shows us our apartments: everything is charming and well thought out, it is truly a beautiful gîte. She worries about our fatigue, offers us a herbal tea, chatters away and laughs a lot, and the connection is immediately established. La Baraque is an eco-gîte; they have a large organic garden and farmyard that provide a large part of the dishes they offer us for dinner. Everything is good, the "chocolate-almond-hazelnut-caramel" tart is a delight, we forget our fatigue and take pleasure in lingering at the table while eating one last slice of tart with one last herbal tea.
We leave La Baraque around 10 a.m., the stage not being very long to the gîte of Tourevès, on the slopes of Mont Lozère, near Génolhac. We retrace the way from the end of our stage yesterday. It seems much more beautiful without fatigue.
We reach Aujac (520 m) and start descending towards the Souillas bridge, a beautiful spot for swimming, we've been told. The sun is shining, we decide to stay there for a while after the swim and have a picnic. We set off again at 1:30 p.m. on a steep climb towards Charnavas-le-Haut (480 m). 
A village we will only see from afar because we turn at the first house towards a pass before descending into a valley where we find the smallest bridge of our whole journey; it has everything of a grand one (arch, parapets...) but in miniature.
Upon our arrival at Génolhac (540 m). It is heavy, we stop to drink a lemonade, then discuss at the Tourist Office about the marking issues and sometimes the maintenance of the GRP "Le Cévenol". We linger a bit because it’s pleasant to be in the alleys. We begin the climb towards the gîte after 4 p.m. via the old Génolhac-Villefort route.
The storm catches us at the foot of the ascent; it pours during the three kilometers of the climb to Col de Bergeronnette at 500 m from Tourevès (800 m), a magnificent balcony over the Génolhac valley. When we arrive, a ray of sunshine pierces the clouds and creates a bright rainbow over the town; it’s splendid!
The meal begins with a homemade aperitif "la cartagène," accompanied by delicious olives. The pâté from the butcher of Chamborigaud is a treat... The meal is even more enjoyable as we share it with a family of enthusiastic Parisian hikers.
Departure from Tourevès at 9 a.m. to arrive in Villefort before the expected storm around 1 p.m. The forest track, terraced above the valley, sometimes reveals beautiful panoramas. We can even clearly see Mont Ventoux now, which Jacques Lemaire, our host at Tourevès, had already pointed out to us in the morning mist. At the col du Marquet, there's a beautiful viewpoint behind the big rock that lines the road.
At Rabusat Pass (1099 m), we stop for a small snack. A young couple arrives from the direction of Mas de la Barque on Mont Lozère; they picked some chanterelles along the way, and they plan to cook them for lunch. They set off before us. We then follow a ridge line in gorse with a bit of climbing to spice up the trail. On the descent, we find their bag of mushrooms on the grass of the path. They aren’t far, I run to return it to them. Shortly after, we meet a nearly seventy-year-old German hiker, still alert and enthusiastic; she offers us her camera to take a photo with Villefort in the background, far in the valley.
Then we take a long path that leads us to Villefort (591 m). It’s 12:40 p.m., it starts to rain, we decide to eat indoors in the first restaurant that presents itself: "La Brindille," the daily menu is good and not too expensive. We appreciate our choice to eat inside when the rain intensifies. Our picnic stays in our bag; it will still be good tomorrow!
When we leave at around 2 p.m., it’s still raining.
We stop at the newsstand to buy some reading material and postcards to occupy ourselves at the Hôtel du Lac (615 m). At 5 p.m., the sun finally manages to pierce the clouds, and we go for a walk along the lake; it’s nice, but we aren’t fully engaged, as we are already thinking about tomorrow’s stage. In the evening, at dinner, we enjoy the flank steak with Bleu d'Auvergne as a starter, followed by Lozère veal, the "homemade" blueberry tart with its chestnut fondant and raspberry coulis. The waitresses are charming.
We leave the hotel just before 9 a.m., it’s cool, a good temperature to start the climb towards La Garde-Guérin on the GR®700 "the Régordane way." The calade is, at times, still in very good condition. You can tell we are close to Mont Lozère because the stones are round and fairly large; it’s granite, unlike the calades at the beginning of our tour where the stones were schistous, flat, and thin, arranged vertically against each other. The path rises well; we have a nice view, above the lake, of Mont Lozère. We can clearly see the path we descended yesterday, after Rabusat Pass.
We soon arrive at a plateau. We catch sight of La Garde-Guérin (874 m). It’s not yet ten o'clock; we take the time for a small visit to this medieval village (12th-15th century). I climb to the top of the tower, it's sporty: you access the top via a narrow tube about 90 cm wide and 2 meters high, no stairs, holes in the wall, and a metal bar to hoist yourself onto the platform at the top. The panorama is superb: the gorges of Chassezac to the east, Mont Lozère to the west. We leave the village by a nice shaded path, passing a fountain-lavoir, and reach a viewpoint again over the gorges of Chassezac.
We then pass by a golf course, then the path winds through the meadows before arriving at Albespeyres (870 m). We pay more attention to the old farmhouses and the large garden than the GR marks; we miss the descent to Chassezac, passing under the railway. We continue on the road and catch up with the GR shortly before Prévanchères by crossing the dam that holds back the waters of Chassezac. We meet an old hiker living in Albespeyres; we tell him about our misadventure, and he explains that we couldn’t see the GR fork marks because there was a (white) car parked in front! It reminds us of something!... (the hikers picnicking near a cross).
After La Molette (1006 m). We gain some altitude again (1133 m) while following meadows where cows graze. After Le Thort, we take a path along a mushroom forest, then we arrive at a very old paved road, half-covered by vegetation. It likely serves only the hikers now. We again miss a left turn to join La Bastide-Puylaurent via a small road...
Upon our arrival at L'Etoile, at La Bastide Puylaurent (1024 m), Philippe Papadimitriou offers us tea; all's well that ends well...
This hike is certainly one of the most beautiful we have done, walking from ridge to ridge, passing through narrow valleys, crossing streams where we enjoyed bathing, offering us breathtaking panoramas carved in schist and granite, and then there’s this magnificent habitat clinging to the slopes, tamed a bit by kilometers of terraces mounted by hand, stone by stone... What a beautiful country! Eric Dubois
